You don't have to be experiencing fashion to feel what's the electricity, the magic of the place when you come to us. Because you see it, beauty is beauty. The fashion business is very punishing. It's relentless. Yes, definitely. No, it's really, really hard. It's from around 2012, I shop in your life. Yes, I remember that. So let's talk about that. What is my daughter doing? I cannot believe it, you know? I started to look

in the internet who you were and I became even worse

Geoman Del welcome to the Magnificent others

So full disclosure you are my father-in-law

So we have to get that out of the way first

How do you feel about that? No, just wait. We'll get to that. Okay. Um, Syrogestical Parker, Taylor Swift, J.Lo, Celine Dion, Michelle Obama, Lana Yatron, Nancy Reagan, Liza Manelli, Anna Kendrick, Heidi Klum, Claire Dane, Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington, Sandra Bullock. These are just some of the beautiful women that you've dressed to the years being in the fashion business. Yeah, it's been quite an incredible experience. I have to say, you know, I mean, just I can't believe in fact. I'm happy you did, you gave that list because I was afraid you were going to ask me, who did I dress? I would have never got to that point. I leave anyone out the list. Anacandrics. It's decolkidman. Ha. You know, but no, but more or less. I mean, yeah, there's so many animals with the years. So what I felt like we needed to start there because they were family, but also be people that wouldn't necessarily, if they know you're a fashion designer, would they would necessarily know the arc of accomplishment. As you know, in American culture, you're judged by the level of celebrity that you reach. Yeah, it's, I mean, I said, it's quite an experience. I have to say, just so recently, you know, a documentary on Ferragamo, you know, the shoemaker, and he was talking, I mean, the experience was the same, you, from the love of a product, the love of making something beautiful, from the understanding he came to America, you know, and he developed he basically dressed all these big celebrities as well, and it was the same principles, you know, the principle of loving the making, the making the product, the, you know, the respect of the material, I mean this whole love the artisanie, which is basically what I come from. You know, this mastery of artisan that's proud of their work. I mean, this is like what's the fire was behind my experiences. So my aspiration in interviewing you and the reason I asked you is because most people really don't understand the fashion business. I mean, they have a sort of celebrity tinge chew of what is it like, but obviously because we've been family for many years now. I have an insider view and I realize in talking to people in my life, most people really don't understand the grind of the fashion business and the, and it starts with the love. We'll get there'll get there for a second, but I wanna get into your background a bit, if you don't mind. So you were born in post-war France, 1955. Yes. 5155, yes. Yes. Lucky numbers, right? Yes. What are your memories of post-war France? Because Paris obviously famously was not bombed. No. I mean, I grew up in a... I grew up in an area in Paris called Neuille, which is a little wood of Boulagne. In fact, I was born in the American hospital in Paris, which is the American hospital. Who do you know that little home my arm? Here I am, you know, in America. I mean, you know, I grew up surrounded by obviously my parents that were had, you know, such tremendous experience with the war and so on. So it was they during my whole youth, they tried not to impose in me, you know, they're what they went through. Even my religious, I have not been religiously educated in any way. I was very free because they resorted enormously. My mom went to a terrible concentration camp. I just read recently that, you know, in Dranxi, where she was staying, where she stood during the war, 70,000 people went in and only 2,000 went out and she was one of them. So it's like incredible. And you know, to date, unfortunately, she passed away, but till the last moment, she really never really wanted to talk about it. I mean, it was such a trauma. I mean, you could imagine it's just can't imagine. It's almost an imagine. An imagineable. But people went incredible and my dad the my dad, the same thing, from his story is incredible. This man was a man of multi-talented, but he grew up as a furry, because he was in the Jewish family. The first boy, it tries to become a doctor. They tried to give him an education. The second my dad had to go and work with a family. That's how it is. So from the age of six, seven years old, he was already starting to work and help, you know, the mother and my grandfather, you know, as a Ferrier, you know, to do things. And so he, during the war, which is crazy, if you think of it, you know, he, I mean, first of all, should I talk about that for a minute? It's right here. Okay. You're doing it for me, yeah. Okay. I mean, it's insane. I mean, this is a man who was very educated for a long time. He was really purely educated as a master of failure. I mean, he learned from my grandfather, you know, the trade and so on. But when he was in his 20s, you would think that how do you... how do you, you know, the world started and you know, what makes you fight and become part of the resistance, you would think. Well, he wrote a book, my dad, after a while, and you know, and in his book he says that basically the story was that he fed enough with a girl, you know, and that girl happened to be in the resistance. And the next day, you know, he wanted somebody to date, that she took him one day and he said, OK, come over, we have something, we're going to go and bomb a bridge. And he was suddenly in a car with a grenade between his legs going to bomb the bridge where the Germans were coming. That's how he started the war. Then the Germans obviously after that, the Gestapo, were searching for him. and he went for one year in the south of France, he didn't need a little farm where he couldn't get out, he had to hide because they were looking for him. So the only time he could get out maybe is at night time a little bit. But anyway, so he started to read and he read everything he could find. So until that moment, since I know my dad, till his last breath, he would send me first, you know, factors before the emails, but he would send me factors and stories and he could never talk to me without poetry. He would write. It was always beautiful. He would even say to me, Jill, maybe today you should do this, you know, in work or you should, you know, I advise you to do that. He would come with maybe a poem from Bodle or something. He would come out with, it was insane. The man was kind of a special guy. He wasn't sure he was decorated after the war by Mitterrand. He got a resistance fighter. He got a medal, yes, he was decorated. Yeah. But talk a little bit about how your parents met because it's a son likely sort of meeting I mean The I mean how they met I I'm not sure I mean the met through family know it's in those days You know my mother had many brothers and you know they had when you had to meet if you met some my dad You know to meet her had to be told the brother she couldn't go out without the six brothers behind her going you are they de met in Paris I mean that's where they met and during the war after the war they just

met right after the war but nothing I don't think there was anything particularly I thought your

daughter had told me a story that would be something a little bit more poetic movie like a movie scene

or really no I don't recall that no, we blame her for giving me the information. So you're the fifth generation of your family that entered what we would loosely call a fashion business, but it was really the furrier business. Yes. Yeah, I mean, you know, from 1870, you know, in, you know,

from Nikola second, where I'm sure they had, you know, the Jews were, as you know, during that time in the, in the late 19th century, you know, they were kind of segregated in some areas of Russia. I mean, it was, you know, I think it was called the Pellet settlement, you know, it was an area between Belarus and Ukraine and you know, there was an area

where they could live and And if they had special skill or some sort, you would be able to go to Leningrad and eventually do things like my great-grandfather was doing for the Tsar. He could make fur. He could do, he had this extraordinary talent and artistry. Keep it brought to there, you know, for the Tsar, he could make fur, he could do, you know, he had this extraordinary talent and artistry. He brought to there, you know, the knowledge of making of all the making of the firm, the artisan. He had, his technical skill were very high and I think that's why, because of his skill, he was able to start. Can you define what that skill would have been in the late 1800s? What? The skill was really, I mean, you know, I mean, it's to make a fair coat, if you think of it, you know, it's very, very complicated and very artistic effort because, you know, I don't want to be too, too, too literal, but you know, there's a lot of cutting, a lot of symmetrical things. You to understand, and animal doesn't have the same character from the neck to the bottom of his skin, the hair has a different, so in order to make a garment very uniform, you have to really understand the leather side, how to cut the skins to make it right. So there is a huge, huge amount of technical knowledge that in those days, you know, was required and my great-grandfather, you know, got this from you from from Australia. I mean, the Jewish people, you know, I think the third trade was comes from hundreds and hundreds of years, you know. So it's, I think he was highly skilled. He was extremely skilled. And when he came when my grandfather

left after the revolution, these Russian area and came to France, he brought with him his knowledge, his technical knowledge, and that's how he started to build something in Paris. What economic situation where your parents in when you were young, were you like poor or were they sort of middle-class? They were a little bit middle-class, maybe a little bit better than middle-class. I mean, my father would come at night and continue to do his work watching television, you know, at home on front of the TV, but still trying to make up a little bit so he could the next day have already advanced his work. He had a Natelier originally when when I was little my dad had a beautiful little shop but you know with an Natelier with one soar and he was making I mean those days there was maybe four five styles you know that he would offer to the clients and they were all bespoke pieces. Basically, at the time, somebody would come, he would make them for custom. And you know, it's, it's, but from him, I learned and when I was little, you know, I was, I would go to the workshop and I, you know, smelled, you know, the workshop and all this, the noise of the of machine and I would look at this man who was very handsome with you know long hands a little diamond and diamond ring and he would be I would look at him nailing the skins on the board and you know it would be like looking at the architecture of Versailles the gardens of Versailles you know all these skins were laid out on the board and he had like all nails and a tool that maybe belonged to his father, femme old tool, and he would do nail by nail you know, stretching the skin, wetting the skin, stretching the skin on the board. And at the end, it would be immaculate. It was like, I mean, as I said, like a plan of Paris, you know, it was very beautiful. So I mean I saw him and I saw him doing that for many years till one day. He moved to Rousse-Antonore in Paris. I mean, you know, it was a time my mother was very, very, very visionary. And she knew that this man was so talented, he needed to be more exposed to the world of fashion and so on. And Rousse Antoine Ré was the street and he's still the street in Paris to be in. So was your mother that sort of pushed my mother? Yes, she was the one who really put my dad with a state where he was. He was very happy. Was her vision that he could sort of elevate himself in the fashion? Yeah, I spoke world and you know it's I don't think up to that time. there was you talking so much I mean there is fashion I think I have been more than one who brought More even this idea of fashion to the world. I mean to that embrace more the fashion element my dad looked at himself like you know Like crash like a craft man who was making unbelievable thing He didn things. He didn't need to do quite it is.

He didn't want to do anything that was beyond,

you know, the artistry of his work.

And he was very proud of it. And there was something, my mom was the one pushing and saying, we should try to do, to be more involved, you know, you're so talented, you're so much to offer. Why don't you show that to more people?

I see.

And I was instrumental of that, basically,

when I decided to move into my family's world, in the work world, I basically, I'm the one who instigated this connection with designers, because my mother was basically this little bundle of beauty who was always constantly you know I would be one day in Paris and she would arrive in a little mini Cooper with you know famous designer next to her like Azina Layao you know and I had she she had many very famous designers around her that loved her and it was not about the spanning of the money or it was more because she was very charismatic, she loved to dress and she really was so inspiring and she's definitely one of my best inspiration. Yeah, when we were last in Paris your daughter and I we went to the Alaya Museum. Yes, and she was talking about imagine my grandmother used to come here. Yes. Yeah's, yeah. And I went, when I was little, she would take me to the Atelier of Avalaya. But she was incredible. She really introduced me to that. And when I was at that age, younger, I would go to the Atelier. And that's how I discovered, in fact, completely fashion, because I saw those designers in the, you know, and I saw their collections, and I saw those assistants sketching for them. And I was looking at those fittings, with clothes that felt like surreal to me. Yeah. You know, so looking at my dad, who was making this most imiculate, beautiful product, but one of a kind every time, and seeing those guys, you know, exploring, you know, the infinity of beauty really raising my, I mean, definitely inspiring me to do whatever I want. At that point in your life, like, let's say your teens, your late teens is your idea you're going to follow your father into the family trade or you're going to do something different. Yeah, I never really thought I would follow my families, follow my father's, you developing it, but somehow, I did a business school. I was not too good in business school. I knew I'd cheat pretty well. So I mean, business school, it just makes me laugh. Thank you very much. So believe it or not, during that time you know, I mean, I was trying to keep going

by playing music, you know, I was, yeah, I had a band, I was playing, I had a band called

Silver Hill. Silver Hill. Silver Hill. Ask me why I have no idea. But anyway, I was trying to

escape from school as much as I could, you know, so I traveled a lot. What I was at school, I,

you know, even traveled to Guatemala, I discovered you were giving the Guatemala. Okay, yeah. But I did some travel. But when I came back to Paris and I tried to be a businessman, my best friend had his dad was a very famous guy who was buying grains and selling grains all over the world and edging his buys at the chicago traits, you know, world trade.

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